Jessa Mae Ongaria

AB POLITICAL SCIENCE III-B

Ms. Salve R.Requillas

Indonesias new law to ban extreme groups may backfire: Experts

BYBEN HO

PUBLISHED: 4:00 AM, JULY 14, 2017

JAKARTA A new decree that allows the Indonesian government to ban

groups that oppose its official state ideology could spark opposition from
Islamists, analysts told TODAY.

The law, signed by President Joko Widodo on Monday, comes as concerns

grow about the influence of hardliners in the worlds largest Muslim-majority
nation, where most of the population practises a moderate form of Islam.

The decree empowers the government to disband without trial any group
that challenges Pancasila a set of founding national principles that include
national unity, social justice and democracy alongside belief in God, and
enshrines religious diversity in an officially secular system of government.

It is believed that Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), a group that campaigns for
the country to adopt Syariah law and become a caliphate, is among the
targets of the decree after the government announced in May that it planned
to ban the group.

Associate Professor Gregory Fealy, an expert in Indonesian politics at the

Australian National University, warns that the decree may backfire on the
Widodo administration. The risk here is this causes an Islamist backlash
against him, and this doesnt look like a thing a nation of laws should be
doing, he told The New York Times.

Mr Keith Loveard, an analyst at Jakarta-based Concord Consulting, expects a

pushback from the Islamists in that they would mount a legal challenge
headed by constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra to the new ruling.

It is also likely that some groups most likely including HTI will take to
the streets to protest, said Mr Loveard, who is also an author of books about
Indonesian politics.

It needs to be noted that HTI itself has always been extremely disciplined
and well-behaved in its public outings, a factor that will inevitably be used by
Mahendra as a good reason why it should not be banned, he added.
Indonesia expert Shinta Eka Puspasari says that any Islamist pushback
against the new ruling is unlikely to be violent, at least in the short term.

I dont foresee any fierce backlash from radical groups notorious for
vigilantism such as the FPI (Islamic Defenders Front) at the moment,
particularly due to the absence of FPI leader Rizieq Shihab, the analyst at
Concord Consulting told TODAY.

The firebrand Shihab is facing charges for violating Indonesias pornography

law after screen captures emerged of sexually explicit text messages,
purportedly between him and a woman who is not his wife.

Ms Puspasari, cautioned, however, that Islamist groups could use the new
decree to reaffirm the message of the protests last year against former
Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama that Muslims are being
marginalised in the country.

HTI, along with other Islamist groups such as the FPI, were behind the
protests against Purnama last year, who was then accused of blasphemy. He
was convicted in May and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

Over the last few months, hardline Islamist groups have set up posters
around Jakarta that say the Widodo regime is criminalising religious
scholars.

Indonesian political observer and businessman Johannes Nugroho warns that

the decree may toughen the hardline stance of Indonesian jihadists and their
sympathisers for what they will see as persecution of their faith.

The government should bear in mind that radical Islam now has had the
momentum to grow after the fall of (former Indonesian president) Suharto
largely because Suharto tried to silence it for much of his tenure, so much so
it developed a persecution complex, Mr Nugroho told TODAY.

Mr Suharto ruled Indonesia for 32 years during which he demanded loyalty to

the secular state ideology Pancasila and discouraged the organisation of
religious groups.

His downfall in 1998 ushered in democratic reforms, and alongside them a

new-found freedom for hardline Islamist groups, many of which have been
involved in harassing and violently attacking religious minorities, feminists
and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups. WITH AGENCIES